ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Residents in an East Orlando neighborhood were allegedly victims of mail theft from their community mailbox, including vote-by-mail ballots.
A resident in Pinewood Reserve posted photos on Facebook showing ballot envelopes and other mail stuffed down a nearby storm drain.
The United States Postal Service and the Orange County Supervisor of Elections were contacted, and new ballots were issued. About a dozen ballots had to be reissued. A criminal investigation is underway, although no evidence has been presented that it was ballots they were targeting.
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David Peterson is one of the residents whose ballot went missing. He told News 6 reporter Laverne McGee he does not believe that ballots were being targeted, because he also received a fraud alert about a debit card he had not yet received.
“Evidently what has happened is that someone has stolen the master key for the mailboxes, so they can open up a whole bank of boxes, and then take the envelopes where they feel credit cards and commit fraud with them,” Peterson said.
News 6 also spoke with Orange County Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean.
“I was very concerned, I was extremely alarmed once we heard the news, but we sprang into action and made sure that we were able to get them their ballot in a timely fashion, immediately, actually, the very next day,” Gilzean said.
In order to keep track of your ballot, Supervisor Gilzean said ”we encourage people to sign up for a software that we have called Ballot Trax, which tracks your ballot from start to finish and to ensure that you know and have confidence, and more importantly proof, they we have received your ballot and it can be tabulated.”
He also says that people should not be worried that someone could get a hold of their ballot and use it to vote. They have a secure process to make sure the signature matches on the document sent in.
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